Galen Rook was the sheriff of a small, isolated village in Icara[Something-something Springs? Getting a name from Ingrid, hopefully - D] where he grew up. He knew all of the villagers as well as his own family, and they looked to him to help them settle their differences when necessary and keep the peace.
One day in 502, armed travelers arrived in his village, stirring up trouble. When they began to attack villagers, he took action, but was quickly overpowered and disarmed. The strangers tried to convince him that there was something wrong with him - that his fellow villagers were in actuality monsters. Though he initially dismissed their claims as madness, such was the vehemence and unanimity of their conviction that he grudgingly decided to lend them his trust. Eventually he became convinced of their words - he was incapable of perceiving magikal effects, and he noticed that the villagers were strangely violent and non-communicative. Then they removed a glass vial of water that he had unknowingly been carrying within his badge of office. Upon its removal, Galen's eyes were opened. Though he could now see the monsters among them, and magik was no longer hidden from his sight, he was devastated to learn that every man, woman and child in the village he grew up in was dead. Only he was spared; whether it was to provide a distraction or a cruel entertainment, he could not say. Though, in the end, justice was meted and the curse upon his home was dispelled, Galen was the sheriff of a ghost town. ["The Sign of the Flask"]
After giving blood to the soil and making prayers for the dead, Galen struck out on his own, heading south. He hired himself out as a sell-sword to caravans and any who needed protection, though he was as selective as he could afford to be about whom he worked for. He might not have been a sheriff any longer, but he still had an innate sense of justice, and his god, Vorak, demanded that Man be honorable, taking gold only from worthy opponents. He made some profit in fighting bandits and brigands, and had no qualms against looting them for his just reward, but he refused any employment that struck him as dishonest or a cover for ill-doing.
503 - Galen met BANTAM, a poacher-turned-guide for the Wayfarer's Guild. Bantam had been hired by the same merchant Galen was protecting, and as the two sat around the fire, they soon found themselves laughing at each others' tales of misfortune, narrow escapes, desperate scraps and unexpected rewards. By the time they completed their patron's journey, they had shed blood together, witnessed the Blood Sky Omen and debated its meaning, and become fast friends, but they went their separate ways nonetheless. Such is the life of the itinerant.
504 - In what he would later describe as the "best and worst mistake I've ever made," Galen fell in love with an errant sorceress named SEVESTRE (seh-VESS-truh). Their first meeting had been innocuous enough; she was a traveler seeking solace in numbers on the road as she was eastward-bound, and he had been hired by a band of pilgrims traveling to the Well of Divinity in Gallura. It was as they traveled through Doro Y'Edhel that the two realized they were in love with each other, and by the time they reached Gallura, the two began to speak of marriage. However, when Galen suggested returning to Icara, Sevestre revealed that not only was she Karandian (something she had concealed until then), but a black sheep of HOUSE DUMAVALORNE, a mage-family with a seat on the Mage Council of Traaü. They had made it as far as Quivera when Sevestre discovered that she was pregnant. They wintered in a small, remote village in the Orange Duchy, called Odstone, while they contemplated their future.
505 - With the closing of Doro Y'Edhel to outsiders, Galen and Sevestre remained in Odstone. Sevestre gave birth to a son, LEXANDER, on April 21st. Again they considered their future together, but could not reconcile their backgrounds and their desires for the future - Galen favored marrying and settling down, preferably in Icara; Sevestre seemed unwilling to abide the notion of remaining in one place, much less being reduced to a peasant goodwife. For months they played at being husband and wife, but Sevestre grew more dissatisfied by the week, and though Galen saw it, he couldn't figure out where to compromise. On the moonless Midsummer Night, Sevestre took Lexander from his crib while Galen slept. He awoke later, finding the house empty, and went searching for her. He managed to follow her trail through a muddy field where a cluster of unusual stones stood. In the center of the rough circle of stones, he found Lexander's swaddling clothes, but nothing else. The trail ended there.
506 - Galen continued to roam western Xaria, always searching for any sign of the fate of his lover and his infant son, working again as a mercenary to fund his search. During this time he took some comfort from a friendship he developed with PYPPA, the priestess of Moére who had acted as midwife at Lexander's birth. She confessed to him that she had been suspicious of Sevestre, though at first he disregarded her opinion, thinking it was only because Sevestre had made it known she preferred that a priestess of the Mother had been present to deliver and bless her son. To the contrary, Pyppa told him, Sevestre had specifically asked her to bless him in the name of Moére, instead - "the goddess of the Fae," as she had put it. Additionally, she knew that Sevestre was a practitioner of the arcane arts, though she had tried to hide it from the other villagers. Her being out on Midsummer Night, under a moonless sky, with their child suggested to Pyppa that she was not abducted, but rather left the house with ill motive. Though Galen passed through Odstone when he could to speak with Pyppa, he never remained home for more than a day.
507 - While Galen's journeys had added to his knowledge of the western roads, they yielded no sign of his wife's fate. He returned once more to Odstone for the winter. Pyppa and Galen went to the standing stones to perform a divination on the Winter Solstice, a night nearly as dark as that of Sevestre's disappearance. There they were met by a strange, antlered Fae creature named RIMECRUX who offered to tell them the truth of Midsummer Night two years past. Neither, however, could offer anything Rimecrux deemed of worth. Pyppa offered the Faerie a future favor, provided it would not cause harm to another mortal. Despite Galen's protest, Rimecrux accepted the offer; however, since he found the offer dissatisfying, he exchanged only a partial truth: Sevestre had traded her son for freedom, and she had done it willingly, without coercion or enchantment. Unable to draw anything further from the Faerie, Galen and Pyppa returned home to discuss the news. Pyppa suggested that because Moére had deigned not to grant her requests for divination, perhaps Sevestre had not given the child to the Dark Fae, and was protecting the woman for some reason. Galen, more unsettled than ever before, took to the open road as soon as the thaws permitted. He spent the entire year roaming the western lands, searching for Sevestre.
508 - During the winter, Galen encountered a merchant whose caravan had been raided by brigands in the borderlands between Karandia and Chalter Medrium. They were unusual in that they were aided by a profusion of magikal enchantments and protections, and were led by a woman who was knowledgeable in the magikal arts. She had, in fact, allowed the merchant and his companions to escape with their lives, and made certain they knew her name - Sevestre the Black. Galen sought out the band, learning more about their activities from those whom had been her victims. Eventually, in the autumn he found her, preparing himself for the encounter by hiring and forewarning a small band of mercenaries for protection, though doing so cost him nearly all the coin he had in the world. Though each side remained wary of the other, when Sevestre learned that the mercenaries were led by Galen and he meant only to parley with her, she agreed to speak privately to him. She told him that she had been denounced by her family, and when he asked, she confirmed that her dalliance with him had played some role in it, though it was not the primary cause of her exile. She admitted to the fact that she had traded their son for her freedom - from him and from motherhood. Sevestre told him that she had never wanted the life he was trying to build, which to her was like a cage she was watching him construct around her. Though she had cared for their son, increasingly she knew that she could never be Lexander's mother, and so she drew upon her magikal knowledge to meet with the Fae and make the trade. Rimecrux had taken her through the Fae realm to the woods outside Karandia, and she began her new life, free from chains of family or obligation, becoming her own agent. She warned Galen that the deal she had made with the Fae was unbreakable, and that there would be no way to retrieve him without imperiling his life - and if the father were dead or imprisoned, how would that benefit the son? It was better this way, she argued. Aggrieved, furious and heartbroken, he left the wood in the company of his hired men, leaving Sevestre unharmed. She, likewise, commanded her men to leave him unmolested.
509 - After spending the remainder of the previous year either drunk or searching for a way to recover his abducted son, by spring Galen settled back into being a sell-sword on the open roads. He sought out lore about the Fae, but could find little of any use or reliability. In the summer, he had the good fortune to once again encounter his old friend Bantam, who, after a brief interlude in which they fled from a ravenous Troll for three days straight, offered to sponsor Galen's initiation into the Wayfinder's Guild. Galen accepted, allowing himself to be convinced that it might improve the quality of his clientele - or, at the very least, lessen the amount of effort he had to expend to find them. As he grew accustomed to guild structure and operation, Galen saved his coin as best he could so that he might post a plea through the Hall of Travelers seeking sages knowledgeable about the Fae.
510 - Little of note changed in this long, hot year for Galen. His advertisement attracted only lunatics and hecklers, and eventually he declined to renew its posting. He worked as a guide, ranging further eastward than he had previously been in his life, but he found no news of his son, and by year's end, he realized he would likely need to accept that his son was forever out of his reach.
511 - While carrying out his employment, a merchant caravan he was guiding through Chalter Medrium was set upon by thieves in the night, concealed from sight by magik. Galen helped the merchant to recover his lost wealth, discovering in the process that the culprit was Sevestre the Black. They confronted one another, but in the end neither was willing to slay the other, and so the merchant escaped with his gold and Sevestre withdrew - but not without leaving Galen enchanted with a rather embarrassing QUEST, to repay him for the "inconvenience" he had caused her. Twelve hours later, Galen felt an immense sense of relief that he could abandon his task of digging his way to the Underworld, but was far too weary to pursue Sevestre and her band. Instead he settled for sending a message to the Karandian Army of her last known whereabouts. Nonetheless Galen felt convinced that would not be the last time he matched wits with his ex-lover...
512 - While seeking employment in the Chalter Medrian harbor town of Lund, Galen was hired by a Veldron Knight, Hargreave of Veldron [Michael Slusser], who had recently arrived from foreign lands. In the Knight's custody were two young Elves, Falkr [Caleb Slusser] and Rakon [Nathaniel Slusser], whom he eventually learned had been rescued from Dakkor. Hargreave told him that he intended to bring the boys to Doro Y'Edhel, believing that the Elves would accept them into their homeland even if they barred the Knight's entry, but he needed a guide since the way was unknown to him. Galen accepted the employment, pleased to find work that would allow him to investigate rumors of an ancient road, long in disuse, that was said to be located in the same region. In Lund, Galen had heard much of Queen Cassandra's funding of expeditions; perhaps the Crown would pay for reliable information about this road?
A Chalter Medrian Army Corporal, Clay [Andrew Gaughen], had hoped to join them on their trek but failed to show on the morning of their departure. A day's travel from Lund, they found a way station on the old road, quite dilapidated but inhabited by a number of beggars and travelers. These folk turned out to be bandits, and they attacked. Wounded, outnumbered, and seeing that the Veldron had been defeated, Galen was about to surrender to them when he heard the voice of Vorak, telling him that they were to be destroyed. He was filled with a sudden rush of strength and adrenaline, and before he was quite aware of what he was doing, he had put one down with a thrown dagger and plunged his sword into two others.
One day in 502, armed travelers arrived in his village, stirring up trouble. When they began to attack villagers, he took action, but was quickly overpowered and disarmed. The strangers tried to convince him that there was something wrong with him - that his fellow villagers were in actuality monsters. Though he initially dismissed their claims as madness, such was the vehemence and unanimity of their conviction that he grudgingly decided to lend them his trust. Eventually he became convinced of their words - he was incapable of perceiving magikal effects, and he noticed that the villagers were strangely violent and non-communicative. Then they removed a glass vial of water that he had unknowingly been carrying within his badge of office. Upon its removal, Galen's eyes were opened. Though he could now see the monsters among them, and magik was no longer hidden from his sight, he was devastated to learn that every man, woman and child in the village he grew up in was dead. Only he was spared; whether it was to provide a distraction or a cruel entertainment, he could not say. Though, in the end, justice was meted and the curse upon his home was dispelled, Galen was the sheriff of a ghost town. ["The Sign of the Flask"]
After giving blood to the soil and making prayers for the dead, Galen struck out on his own, heading south. He hired himself out as a sell-sword to caravans and any who needed protection, though he was as selective as he could afford to be about whom he worked for. He might not have been a sheriff any longer, but he still had an innate sense of justice, and his god, Vorak, demanded that Man be honorable, taking gold only from worthy opponents. He made some profit in fighting bandits and brigands, and had no qualms against looting them for his just reward, but he refused any employment that struck him as dishonest or a cover for ill-doing.
503 - Galen met BANTAM, a poacher-turned-guide for the Wayfarer's Guild. Bantam had been hired by the same merchant Galen was protecting, and as the two sat around the fire, they soon found themselves laughing at each others' tales of misfortune, narrow escapes, desperate scraps and unexpected rewards. By the time they completed their patron's journey, they had shed blood together, witnessed the Blood Sky Omen and debated its meaning, and become fast friends, but they went their separate ways nonetheless. Such is the life of the itinerant.
504 - In what he would later describe as the "best and worst mistake I've ever made," Galen fell in love with an errant sorceress named SEVESTRE (seh-VESS-truh). Their first meeting had been innocuous enough; she was a traveler seeking solace in numbers on the road as she was eastward-bound, and he had been hired by a band of pilgrims traveling to the Well of Divinity in Gallura. It was as they traveled through Doro Y'Edhel that the two realized they were in love with each other, and by the time they reached Gallura, the two began to speak of marriage. However, when Galen suggested returning to Icara, Sevestre revealed that not only was she Karandian (something she had concealed until then), but a black sheep of HOUSE DUMAVALORNE, a mage-family with a seat on the Mage Council of Traaü. They had made it as far as Quivera when Sevestre discovered that she was pregnant. They wintered in a small, remote village in the Orange Duchy, called Odstone, while they contemplated their future.
505 - With the closing of Doro Y'Edhel to outsiders, Galen and Sevestre remained in Odstone. Sevestre gave birth to a son, LEXANDER, on April 21st. Again they considered their future together, but could not reconcile their backgrounds and their desires for the future - Galen favored marrying and settling down, preferably in Icara; Sevestre seemed unwilling to abide the notion of remaining in one place, much less being reduced to a peasant goodwife. For months they played at being husband and wife, but Sevestre grew more dissatisfied by the week, and though Galen saw it, he couldn't figure out where to compromise. On the moonless Midsummer Night, Sevestre took Lexander from his crib while Galen slept. He awoke later, finding the house empty, and went searching for her. He managed to follow her trail through a muddy field where a cluster of unusual stones stood. In the center of the rough circle of stones, he found Lexander's swaddling clothes, but nothing else. The trail ended there.
506 - Galen continued to roam western Xaria, always searching for any sign of the fate of his lover and his infant son, working again as a mercenary to fund his search. During this time he took some comfort from a friendship he developed with PYPPA, the priestess of Moére who had acted as midwife at Lexander's birth. She confessed to him that she had been suspicious of Sevestre, though at first he disregarded her opinion, thinking it was only because Sevestre had made it known she preferred that a priestess of the Mother had been present to deliver and bless her son. To the contrary, Pyppa told him, Sevestre had specifically asked her to bless him in the name of Moére, instead - "the goddess of the Fae," as she had put it. Additionally, she knew that Sevestre was a practitioner of the arcane arts, though she had tried to hide it from the other villagers. Her being out on Midsummer Night, under a moonless sky, with their child suggested to Pyppa that she was not abducted, but rather left the house with ill motive. Though Galen passed through Odstone when he could to speak with Pyppa, he never remained home for more than a day.
507 - While Galen's journeys had added to his knowledge of the western roads, they yielded no sign of his wife's fate. He returned once more to Odstone for the winter. Pyppa and Galen went to the standing stones to perform a divination on the Winter Solstice, a night nearly as dark as that of Sevestre's disappearance. There they were met by a strange, antlered Fae creature named RIMECRUX who offered to tell them the truth of Midsummer Night two years past. Neither, however, could offer anything Rimecrux deemed of worth. Pyppa offered the Faerie a future favor, provided it would not cause harm to another mortal. Despite Galen's protest, Rimecrux accepted the offer; however, since he found the offer dissatisfying, he exchanged only a partial truth: Sevestre had traded her son for freedom, and she had done it willingly, without coercion or enchantment. Unable to draw anything further from the Faerie, Galen and Pyppa returned home to discuss the news. Pyppa suggested that because Moére had deigned not to grant her requests for divination, perhaps Sevestre had not given the child to the Dark Fae, and was protecting the woman for some reason. Galen, more unsettled than ever before, took to the open road as soon as the thaws permitted. He spent the entire year roaming the western lands, searching for Sevestre.
508 - During the winter, Galen encountered a merchant whose caravan had been raided by brigands in the borderlands between Karandia and Chalter Medrium. They were unusual in that they were aided by a profusion of magikal enchantments and protections, and were led by a woman who was knowledgeable in the magikal arts. She had, in fact, allowed the merchant and his companions to escape with their lives, and made certain they knew her name - Sevestre the Black. Galen sought out the band, learning more about their activities from those whom had been her victims. Eventually, in the autumn he found her, preparing himself for the encounter by hiring and forewarning a small band of mercenaries for protection, though doing so cost him nearly all the coin he had in the world. Though each side remained wary of the other, when Sevestre learned that the mercenaries were led by Galen and he meant only to parley with her, she agreed to speak privately to him. She told him that she had been denounced by her family, and when he asked, she confirmed that her dalliance with him had played some role in it, though it was not the primary cause of her exile. She admitted to the fact that she had traded their son for her freedom - from him and from motherhood. Sevestre told him that she had never wanted the life he was trying to build, which to her was like a cage she was watching him construct around her. Though she had cared for their son, increasingly she knew that she could never be Lexander's mother, and so she drew upon her magikal knowledge to meet with the Fae and make the trade. Rimecrux had taken her through the Fae realm to the woods outside Karandia, and she began her new life, free from chains of family or obligation, becoming her own agent. She warned Galen that the deal she had made with the Fae was unbreakable, and that there would be no way to retrieve him without imperiling his life - and if the father were dead or imprisoned, how would that benefit the son? It was better this way, she argued. Aggrieved, furious and heartbroken, he left the wood in the company of his hired men, leaving Sevestre unharmed. She, likewise, commanded her men to leave him unmolested.
509 - After spending the remainder of the previous year either drunk or searching for a way to recover his abducted son, by spring Galen settled back into being a sell-sword on the open roads. He sought out lore about the Fae, but could find little of any use or reliability. In the summer, he had the good fortune to once again encounter his old friend Bantam, who, after a brief interlude in which they fled from a ravenous Troll for three days straight, offered to sponsor Galen's initiation into the Wayfinder's Guild. Galen accepted, allowing himself to be convinced that it might improve the quality of his clientele - or, at the very least, lessen the amount of effort he had to expend to find them. As he grew accustomed to guild structure and operation, Galen saved his coin as best he could so that he might post a plea through the Hall of Travelers seeking sages knowledgeable about the Fae.
510 - Little of note changed in this long, hot year for Galen. His advertisement attracted only lunatics and hecklers, and eventually he declined to renew its posting. He worked as a guide, ranging further eastward than he had previously been in his life, but he found no news of his son, and by year's end, he realized he would likely need to accept that his son was forever out of his reach.
511 - While carrying out his employment, a merchant caravan he was guiding through Chalter Medrium was set upon by thieves in the night, concealed from sight by magik. Galen helped the merchant to recover his lost wealth, discovering in the process that the culprit was Sevestre the Black. They confronted one another, but in the end neither was willing to slay the other, and so the merchant escaped with his gold and Sevestre withdrew - but not without leaving Galen enchanted with a rather embarrassing QUEST, to repay him for the "inconvenience" he had caused her. Twelve hours later, Galen felt an immense sense of relief that he could abandon his task of digging his way to the Underworld, but was far too weary to pursue Sevestre and her band. Instead he settled for sending a message to the Karandian Army of her last known whereabouts. Nonetheless Galen felt convinced that would not be the last time he matched wits with his ex-lover...
512 - While seeking employment in the Chalter Medrian harbor town of Lund, Galen was hired by a Veldron Knight, Hargreave of Veldron [Michael Slusser], who had recently arrived from foreign lands. In the Knight's custody were two young Elves, Falkr [Caleb Slusser] and Rakon [Nathaniel Slusser], whom he eventually learned had been rescued from Dakkor. Hargreave told him that he intended to bring the boys to Doro Y'Edhel, believing that the Elves would accept them into their homeland even if they barred the Knight's entry, but he needed a guide since the way was unknown to him. Galen accepted the employment, pleased to find work that would allow him to investigate rumors of an ancient road, long in disuse, that was said to be located in the same region. In Lund, Galen had heard much of Queen Cassandra's funding of expeditions; perhaps the Crown would pay for reliable information about this road?
A Chalter Medrian Army Corporal, Clay [Andrew Gaughen], had hoped to join them on their trek but failed to show on the morning of their departure. A day's travel from Lund, they found a way station on the old road, quite dilapidated but inhabited by a number of beggars and travelers. These folk turned out to be bandits, and they attacked. Wounded, outnumbered, and seeing that the Veldron had been defeated, Galen was about to surrender to them when he heard the voice of Vorak, telling him that they were to be destroyed. He was filled with a sudden rush of strength and adrenaline, and before he was quite aware of what he was doing, he had put one down with a thrown dagger and plunged his sword into two others.